Paul Midford:
And this week the Noda cabinet used the 40 year rule as the basis for announcing its intention to close the Mihama reactors.

RK:
I've been unable to find any info on this. Can you elaborate?

PM: This was reported in Daily Yomiuri on September 19th

"'On the principle [of the 40-year rule], we're going to decommission [the reactors],'"
Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said at a press conference Tuesday. The reactors Fujimura referred to were the No. 1 reactor at the Tsuruga plant and the Nos. 1 and 2 reactors at the Mihama plant."

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120918003826.htm

One other thing about the 40 year rule and the possibility of extensions that would add up to
20 years: the conditions for this remain largely undefined, but as I read the law the extensions will be based not only on passing a series of safety tests, but on the basis of special or extenuating circumstances, and cannot be a routine practice.

Paul Midford
Norwegian University for Science & Technology